Despite all the news reports that the live-action Streets of Rage movie is dead, Sonic the Hedgehog movie producer Dmitri Johnson is pushing forward and revealed that the film is actually happening and very soon. “Sonic was the gateway drug to get Streets of Rage, and we’re finally making that come true,” he said during a panel in Las Vegas at the inaugural iicon event recently. It may have taken years to get it off the ground, but with video game adaptations finally making big money at the box office, this feels like perfect timing.
In 2026, we’re getting a live-action Mortal Kombat sequel and a Street Fighter reboot. And if the trailers and the hype around the films are anything to go by, fighting game adaptations could become the new comic book movies. Of course, a Streets of Rage film could easily sit in that group too, especially if the creator behind John Wick, Derek Kolstad, is still involved.
Earlier this year, however, Kolstad spoke to ScreenRant and mentioned that the project was in limbo, but that he was still very passionate about it. “I spent a lot of time on it. It’s still actively inactive, like most projects in Hollywood. It’s over at Lionsgate. It’s such a cool script. And what I love about that movie, too, is I always talk about it’s 16 Blocks by way of The Raid. So, once you hit page 17, there’s no letting up until page 101. I haven’t heard anything about it for a while, but I love it.”
Well, Dmitri Johnson, co-founder of Story Kitchen, might have news for Kolstad, too.
“When people ask us now, like, ‘How do you find that you go after for any projects?,’ we selfishly say, ‘We’re trying to make stuff for ourselves,’” he told the crowd at the iicon event. “I almost broke news,” Johnson said as he discussed the Streets of Rage movie. But he stopped himself from spilling the beans. All he could let out was: “There will be news,” he said. And apparently it will be very soon, and it will involve some “exciting talent around that one.”
The game, released in 1991, has become a fan-favourite of beat ’em up fans since its release. Though it has faced some stern competition from Final Fight since its inception, it’s clear that Sega fans still love Streets of Rage enough for the game to receive a very recent entry in 2020.
According to Game File’s report, Johnson took on the Sonic films in the hopes of one day getting to make a Streets of Rage movie – that’s how passionate he is about bringing these characters to life.
With Sonic the Hedgehog 4 now in production, a Streets of Rage movie is still a little stuck, at least until that film is out of the way. But this does sound like positive news.
And if Johnson gets his way, Wood Oak City might finally get the big-screen chaos it’s been waiting for since 1991.
